digest
Introduction
The kettle bell swing is the best way to get the most training in the least amount of time. Two 10-minute workouts a week or two 15-minute workouts a week. Nothing else has that return on investment level. Let's talk about the four most important variations of the kettle bell swing.
The kettle bell swing is one of the greatest exercises ever created. It is simple, it is effective, and it allows you to train anywhere. The problem most people have in fitness is that they don't have time to go to a gym. Kettle bell swings allow you to train anywhere. You don't have to travel to a gym. You can put it in the corner of your living room. You can put it in the corner of the apartment. You can take it to a park and you can work out for 10 minutes twice a week and permanently alter your structure, your breathing, and your movement for the better.
Two-hand kettlebell swing
The most important variation is the classic variation. The original variation is the two-hand kettlebell swing. This is the easiest version with the least amount of core load. Still a lot of core load. It's in the deadlift family of movements.
We're going to point our feet straight ahead and we're going to have them directly under our shoulders. You'll see a lot of people set up for this like it's a super heavy sumo deadlift. Let's not do that. Normal standing foot position. Feet straight ahead. Step back 12 to 18 inches from the bell.
This is a hip exercise. We want to use the glutes, the big muscles in the back of our body, to drive the movement. Push your hips back. Crown-coccyx alignment is the same as it is when you are standing up. We are not rounding our body. Pull your shoulders back. Fire your lats by driving your shoulder away from your ear.
Two hands on. We're going to inhale back. Exhale up. Set it down the exact same place you picked it up. Most people get hurt setting it down because before they are done, they let go with one hand. They twist. They do weird things. Safety is the most important part. Pick it up and set it down.
The two-handed kettle bell swing is the classic swing and it sets up everything else. The problem with it is most people don't understand the pick-up and the set-down.
Version 2
That leads us to our second most important variation, the start-stop two-hand swing. The start-stop two-hand swing is essentially the same, but we are going to touch it down in the middle of every rep.
Our feet are pointed straight ahead. We step back 12 to 18 inches. We want to get down to our starting position and we're going to come back to this position with every rep. So instead of just snapping our hips, we're going to reload. This causes there to be a high and a low position. Fire the lats at the beginning and the end of every rep. This allows us to slow down, change our pace, which changes our breathing, which changes everything about the exercise.
When you're done, set it down with good technique. Don't beat a hole in your floor.
Version 3 (Very Useful)
The two-hand variations are great, but in the real world, it's very rare that I personally encounter symmetrical objects. Usually, I have to pick something up with one hand. This is what kettle bells do better than everything else. We can go from hand to hand. This changes the way our core fires. You're emphasizing the muscle that essentially makes you thin and strong. The muscle that dancers talk about all the time, that martial artists and circus performers talk about all the time: the strength of the transverse abdominis. If you have back pain, then this exercise is incredibly good for getting rid of it.
If you run a program, setup is the same. They are in the deadlift family of movements. We're working on getting better at our normal standing structure, not an abnormal standing structure. Step back 12 to 18 inches. Go down to the bottom. Let's rotate the kettle bell. Point our thumb back and down. Fire one lat. We're going to snap up. We're going to change at the top. Then we'll talk about how to change at the top. Let's set it down with good technique.
When we work on the hand-to-hand transition, people tend to get confused and they tend to try to grab over their hand. It doesn't work. Let's grab a slightly lighter weight. Let's think at the beginning. Thumb points up, thumb points down. We hold on. We push back. The swing is up high, close. If it is below our knees, we are going to hurt ourselves. If it is high, close up and our forearm is impacting the upper edge of our thigh, we will be doing it well.
When we do the hand change, our thumb comes from pointing down to pointing up. Our other hand comes in, grabs, then it goes thumb down, thumb up. Hands come together, thumb down, thumb up. Don't reach over your hands because you'll get caught and then you'll drop it on your floor. And then don't drop it on your floor.
Let's demonstrate it again with this slightly lighter weight so you can see it a little bit clearer. Thumb points up. Thumb points down. Hold in the corner of the bell. Hand goes high and tight. Thumb points up. Thumb points down. Thumb points up. Thumb points down. Up, down. Up, down. Up, down.
The change is happening at shoulder height. This is not an arm exercise. You're not lifting it up and trying to lift a 100-pound weight in front of you. Nobody's strong enough to do that except like three guys on the planet. This is a leg exercise. The hips drive it. It floats. You change hands. Your hips catch it. Your hips drive. Your hips catch.
Version 4
The fourth variation is the start-stop hand-to-hand. Once again, we're going to emphasize the start and the stop in the middle of every rep. This changes the pacing of the movement. It's going to change it entirely. It's going to add breath to it. It's in the deadlift family of movements.
Step back 12 to 18 inches. Thumb points up. Thumb points down. Push it back. Thumb points up. Push back. Touch down. We're going to pause here in the middle of each rep. Do not beat a hole in your floor. Back up. Back down. Back up. Back down. Back up. Back down. Fire the lat. Set it down with good technique. Your feet should not have moved at all. There you are.
Closing
Four variations for the kettle bell swing. Start with a lightweight. Run a mathematical program. Get to a heavy weight. Two variations that float and don't touch down in every rep, so you can do them in an apartment at 6 a.m. without waking up all the neighbors. A touchdown variation for when you have access to an outdoor space. You're going to run these four variations for the rest of your life. 10-minute programs twice a week. If you do nothing else, do that.